Blackbird Bistro & Mission <W. Seattle>

As the two joints sit next to each other I'll touch on them in one review.

Mission, our first stop. I wasn't really in the mood to eat any tex-mex but I love the ambience of the place, and that fact that it was fully packed on a Wednesday night made me want to stay anyway. I poured over the beverage list which was full of tequila offerings. I'm not the biggest tequila fan, but I do know my liquors, and since it seems to be a specialty of the house I went for a Herradura Reposdo, for extreme smoothness and mildness, on the rocks with a dash of fresh lime sour. Wanting something out of the ordinary for a Mexican restaurant our server steered me to a spicy prawn dish with coconut milk, pineapple, vegetables and rice. I'm not sure what I had envisioned it to be, but certainly not the anemic looking "stir fry" put in front of me. "Oh", was all I could say as I looked at the dish, puzzled. I took a few bites of each component, overcooked zucchini, hard little overcooked shrimp, canned pineapple chunks, you see where this is going. The server was good, intuitive, and immediately came back to ask how it was, giving me the opportunity to send it back quickly. All of the true tex-mex style food coming out of the kitchen did look really good, but just wasn't what I wanted to eat. I decided that Mission is probably not the best place to go looking for original cuisine, but I'll go back when I need my meat/bean/cheese/chips fix. I finished my drink and headed next door.

Blackbird Bistro, next stop. I wanted my friend to experience the mac & cheese at Blackbird, as we're both connoisseurs of all American comfort food. This is just creamy, cheesy bliss. The addition of a little Maytag Blue in the 5 cheese blend and the perfectly seasoned and toasted breadcrumbs elevates this childhood favorite to new heights. We followed up with an old fashioned ice cream sundae with mint chocolate sauce and walnut brittle. The server who brought it over actually squeeled with delight as she sat it in front of us, and with good reason. This was another all American favorite, done simply and well. We loved it. A big snifter of warm Calvados Boulard for a steal at $6 was another treat. Friendly and attentive service.